They came from all over. From as far as Mbale, Uganda to the west, Lodwar in the north, the Kerio Valley in the east and Turbo in the south, over 200 pastors traveled to Kitale today. Some of them came weighted down by the heavy burden of ministry. Some are new to pastoring. Some brought their ‘disciples’, men whom they’ve been teaching. Some were coming for additional training because Pastor Richard has been teaching them for years. They came to attend a pastor’s conference that was led by the men of the Bellevue Mission team. Today was a good day!
Dr. Thomas Akins, Wade to most of us, put together a curriculum several years ago that was designed specifically for this type of gathering. It is a practical, biblical approach to church planting and church growth grown out of his years of ministry in South America. We were able to teach several of his sessions today and there were pages and pages of notes taken in English, Swahili, Ugandan and several other local languages. But the most important language spoken today was that of God’s love for the church (the body of baptized believers, not the building!). It was good for some of them to hear that being a successful pastor has nothing to do with the size of his church building, but at the number of people that are discipled and how they are multiplying other disciples. We will complete our training tomorrow and head back to Nairobi Friday morning.
The ladies traveled to Kakamega today to visit Rebekah and the fellowship of widows that she is discipling. We’ll get a report from them when WiFi is available.